New Forum Section: My Tank

[fischkopp]

Hi OVAS,

This is running in my head for quite a while: How about a new section where everyone can show off, display, share, introduce ... her/his tank. You could present some pictures, tell us something about fauna and flora, explain what keeps the tank running. Everybody loves to see other people tanks, we can get so many new ideas for our own projects.

Now, many of us already posted started such threads. The problem is that the get "lost" after a while in the fresh/salt section in between many other posts. An own section would make browsing through these presentations so much easier. Maybe we can even add a picture to each thread when browsing the forum (if possible).

I know that this idea is not new, there are many other aquatic sites that have such forums. Just thought it would be a nice addon to our site. Please note that this is for free sharing, discussion and learning, not for competition.

So what do you think?

[BigDaddy]

Ummmm.... isn't that what the Gallery is for?   

[fischkopp]

Ummmm.... isn't that what the Gallery is for?   

Well, somewhat. But again, browsing the gallery for this purpose is a bit of a pain. Also, there are all kind of pictures various thematics. A dedicated forum thread allows to add several pictures, kind of like a little bulletin, and can show additional information better (no one really looks for this in the gallery).

The idea of my suggestion is to have more organized forum for tank presentations. We may even provide a common layout layout that one can use ...

[BigDaddy]

Okay.. so what if there was a third gallery topic under OVAS Events and OVAS Photo Contests called OVAS Member Tanks?

I know I am sounding like I am beating a dead horse, but the whole reason we added the gallery in the first place was to have a centralized collection of pictures.

The gallery does have a place for adding text, and allows people to make comments.

I just don't like reinventing the wheel

But hey... I'm not the webmaster....

[fischkopp]

That is certainly a way of implementing this feature.

But it seems like it would be an unused addon given the response that this idea gets so far ...

[charlie]

That is certainly a way of implementing this feature.

But it seems like it would be an unused addon given the response that this idea gets so far ...

[/b]
I would agree with you there Fischkopp, given the classifieds is attracting so much discussion these days, we should put it there 

[blizzack1]

Okay.. so what if there was a third gallery topic under OVAS Events and OVAS Photo Contests called OVAS Member Tanks?

I know I am sounding like I am beating a dead horse, but the whole reason we added the gallery in the first place was to have a centralized collection of pictures.

The gallery does have a place for adding text, and allows people to make comments.

I just don't like reinventing the wheel

But hey... I'm not the webmaster....

Would anyone know when the gallery was updated? 

Pictures are good, but I think there is a lot more to a 'my tanks' than just the photos.  It would be nice to have a spot to keep tabs on users tanks, ask questions, have discussions, keep tabs on updates, etc.

You can probably do all that in the gallery, but there would likely be next to no traffic based on my experience on other sites' galleries...

[Agnate]

Yeah, you can't look at this forum idea as "another gallery", because that's not what it would do.  This forum would be very similar to a search filter on the entire gallery.  If someone gets a new tank, they could post up pictures (or link to the gallery pictures - which is a better idea) and then state what's new or what they did that was special to them.  Thus, instead of getting a list of every user's name and looking through their gallery, we can see all of the various tank designs, with the bonus of knowing which ones are more recent.

I agree it's a little "specific" in its forum nature, but so are a lot of the other forums (such as Saltwater Nanos or African Cichlids).

If you wanted to make it interesting, don't just make the forum the "Post your tank here!" forum, but make it a "Creative Design" forum where people can post up creative fish-related things they have done (ie. new method of filtration, new spin on old methods, custom background, etc.).

Although the Gallery is nice for having a place to upload photos, it doesn't have the same feel as a dedicated forum would.

[dan2x38]

Would such a forum have subs under for say: planted, FW, SW, Africans... Could be interesting but could end messy if not laid out with some specific guidelines.

[groupie02]

OK, this being summer time, I'm a little slow on reading the forum.  I like the idea of some kind of build threads forum with lots of room for pictures. I'm not sure how I would implement them.  I'll keep the idea in the back of my mind for a while.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Agnate]

Keeping with the current privileges of OVAS, you could make this new forum so that non-members need to upload their pictures onto free sites like ImageShack or many of those other upload sites, whereas OVAS members can just link from their gallery (assuming the URLs aren't too dynamic and can be reliably linked to).

If you can set up sub-forums for different types of aquariums (saltwater, brackish, freshwater, nanos, etc.), that would allow it to still be organized, and then you just have to allow people to post topics (which will include the pictures and such).  Then, you could just put a message at the top of the page (when you've clicked on "New Topic" and are entering in the text) with the general layout/theme/design that each user's posts must abide by.  I mean, you could always recode the posting layout for that forum to be unique, and just add in the fields you want, but that's a LOT of extra time and effort.  ^_^

[tskinner]

Even just a topic called "Members Aquariums" as seen on other various sites.  Somewhere to should your specs and build progress.  So other newbs/fellow reefers can have something to look up too or have an idea of what it takes in this hobby.  Just a suggestion.  I personally would use to show my nano build. 

[littlelil]

i think this is a fantastic idea, fishcopp, and Agnate, i really like the idea of it being a "creative design" section. So many times i've scrolled through pages of forums looking for people's tank build, or look for my own to update it, or search the internet for photos of other people's tanks for ideas, etc... this would really be great on this site, as it would keep the other discussion sections, more for discussing problems and questions and stuff as opposed to talking about other people's tanks and showing their own!

[sniggir]

I think this is a great Idea.. and I am sry that BD is so negative it is sad when leader...cough past leader have to resort to useless negativity when ppl put forth a Idea and a good one.. I think this new form would make things less compicated and give a storyline to the pic's other than a couple words.

[dan2x38]

Definitely should be a member's only forum. So is this headed anywhere?  Might be perfect timing since this month's presentation is on photography.

[groupie02]

easy there Dan2x38. It may look like it's good timing but it's not as simple as it looks.  I'm keeping the idea but don't expect to see it tomorrow or next week.

[Anja]

I also like the idea. 
Could be one thread per tank and be used sort of like a blog for that tank and how it changes over time.

[fischkopp]

Definitely should be a member's only forum. So is this headed anywhere?  Might be perfect timing since this month's presentation is on photography.

Great to see that this idea get encouragement 

I personally think that it should be open to everyone and NOT be limited to members. Great input comes from anyone - member or not. And data space should not be a concern since the gallery (to host your pics) is member only already. Non-members could use other sites for hosting just as it is done all over the web.

Groupie, thanks for looking into this ... at some point

[Jeff1192]

I agree as well that it would be a great idea.

Jeff

[RoxyDog]

It's a good idea, just not sure of the level of work involved.  Give groupie02 some time to roll it around in his head a bit and maybe you can poke him every once in awhile to remind him too.